War! What is it good for? Makin lots of money.

So in British Literature I don’t think we touched on this much, but Book II of Utopia’s section on warfare includes something particularly interesting that I’ll dwell on a little bit in this blog post.

“As soon as war is declared, therefore, they have their secret agents simultaneously post many placards, each marked with their official seal, in the most conspicuous places throughout the enemy territory. In these proclamations they promise immense rewards to anyone who will kill the enemy’s king. They offer smaller but still very substantial sums for killing any of a list of other individuals whom they name.” (79)

                The Utopians aren’t giant fans of war. They don’t really see it as honorable, and I think that’s pretty cool. Thinking about our current day society, war feels like a constant thing that we’re always involved in. We’ve grown up in war (called “conflicts” or whatever), and we’re basically just used to it. Our soldiers are called heroes and, sure, putting your life on the line is definitely heroic, I’ll agree to that, but should we glorify it as much as we do?

                Back to the quote, since I never touched on it to begin with, it’s interesting to me that this is the option the Utopians go with. It seems sneaky, using secret agents, and yet, it’s… not? Like, they’re putting signs in obvious places saying “kill the king.” How often would that seriously work? I can understand wanting rewards, but that’s a pretty big task. Not to mention, in our current society, you could kill the leader but I really don’t think it would change too much. You would have to simultaneously knock out all of those “other individuals” along with the leader in order to actually end anything. It’s an interesting idea for sure, but I don’t think it would actually work.

                Outside of that, they also try to turn the enemy forces against each other with promises of rewards and personal safety to anyone who “turns against their comrades” (79), which, again, is a really strange tactic. I love that their war techniques are totally underhanded though. They don’t see war as honorable at all, and because of that, they fight wars in the sneakiest, most underhanded ways. As long as it’s resolved, that seems to be all that matters.

                The Utopians really seem to think they can just buy out anyone. From the Zapoletes, who they buy to fight for them, to the various reward posters they put up, they seem convinced that anyone outside of Utopia can be bought out pretty easily. I guess this is proven to work, if Utopia is known to have a track record, but I can’t see it working at all in our society. People can be bought out, for sure, but you’d have to pay someone a hell of a lot to assassinate their leader, and even then most people wouldn’t do it. In the end it’s an interesting idea, but I don’t consider it plausible at all in any kind of modernized society.